We Don't Belong Here: Rise of the Guardians
by TheMostRandomOfRandomWriters
Summary: Fictional characters being real was nothing new for Ivy, though she never thought she'd add Jack Frost and the Bogeyman to the list.
1. Chapter 1

This whole mess started out with me having to go to my brother's music festival.

I don't mind going to them, I really don't. It was that it all took a crazy turn on Monday night, the day after Easter.

During the middle of Ryan's performance that night, I went back early to the hotel we were staying at, instead of hanging around and meeting everyone, as he expected. I was tired and wanted to sleep.

It's not that I didn't sleep – it's that I had yet another nightmare.

My nightmare started out fine. I sat on a bench next to my friend Miranda. My knitting needles clicked together as I worked on a dishcloth. It was quiet and peaceful. Miranda – who records these stories, which me and other people recount, then sends them to somebody she knows who apparently writes them out – had buried her nose _To Kill a Mockingbird_. Her only movement was to flip pages.

She looked up from the book, screamed, and leaped to her feet.

Something exploded behind me.

Miranda collapsed forward, a bleeding gunshot injury in her back.

I woke up with a scream, heart pounding.

I sat up, trying to keep myself from screaming again. No need to freak out everybody in hearing distance because of a stupid dream. My fingers grabbed for my cell phone. I punched in Miranda's number. It rang for a moment.

"Hello?" yawned a voice. "Ivy? Are you okay?"

"I had a nightmare. It… it…" How do you tell a friend that you just had a nightmare where she was shot? Especially when it's actually not that crazy a possibility? "I'm sorry I woke you up."

"Don't _ever_ apologize for bothering me with this stuff," she ordered. "There are things more important than sleep. I told you to call me if you had a nightmare and that I was available at any time."

An evil laugh echoed off the walls of my room. I recognized it instantly.

"Miranda, I'm going to have to call you back," I said.

"Um… is everything okay?"

"You remember that movie we watched before we left for the week?"

"Yeah? _Rise of the Guardians_? Oh…"

"Yeah, I'll just be back in a minute. Probably."

I ended the call and took a deep breath. "You know, Pitch Black, if you want hide under the bed and go unseen, the evil laugh really doesn't work."


	2. Chapter 2

Something hit the underside of the bed, then a man with black hair and a black robe crawled out from underneath. He glared at me. "Oh, come on! How can you even _see_ me? You're, what, fifteen?"

"Sixteen," I corrected. "Get out, and don't come back."

He grinned. "And why would I do that?"

"Because I'm not scared of you and I'm really not in the mood to deal with you right now."

He seemed taken aback by this announcement. He melted away into the shadows, vanishing.

That had been easier than I expected.

I picked up the phone and dialed Miranda again.

"Ivy, are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. It was the Bogeyman hiding under my bed, but I got rid of him." The sad moment when you're not surprised that you're saying this. "You go back to sleep. I'm going to."

"Okay. Call me if anything happens."

"I will," I promised.

I ended the call and lay back on the bed, pulling the blankets up over my head. Of course, I didn't sleep – I couldn't, not after what had happened.

_Rise of the Guardians_. I'd agreed to watch it, thinking that nothing could come of it – that my "special ability" would _never_ transport me to a universe which contained Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. That was just ridiculous, right?

Those of you familiar with my stories are probably questioning my intelligence right now. Those of you who aren't, then you should know that I have the ability to transport myself between universes, and that my judgment is lacking at times.

I woke up again to the sound of the window opening. I pulled the blankets down to see a boy crouched on the windowsill. He had white hair and pale skin and wore a blue hoodie. Jack Frost.

I yelled in surprise, jumping up.

He jumped too, falling off the window sill. A moment later he appeared, this time hanging suspended outside the window.

"You… can see me?"

I nodded. My heart thudded against my ribs.

He flew through the window and landed in front of me.

"You know who I am?"

"You're Jack Frost," I replied.

He took a step toward me, so close he could touch me, eyes fixed on mine. I don't read minds, but it wasn't too hard to guess what he was thinking. Could he touch me? I answered his question – and my own – by reaching out and touching his arm. He froze – oh, rats, I didn't mean to make a pun there. Stop laughing, Miranda!

We both stood still for a moment, my hand still on his arm.

"What's your name?" he asked finally.

"Ivy," I said.

"No one ever sees me."

"Well, that's not entirely true anymore, is it?"

He shook his head. "You're a bit old to believe in Jack Frost, aren't you?"

I shrugged. "You're never too old to believe in something that's real."

"I, uh… we need help. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Sandman, the Tooth Fairy and me… we all need help."

Most people would have probably thought they were insane if they heard that.

I took a deep breath. "When do I start?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Pitch Black has already been here," I said as we headed downstairs through a set of back stairs. I had pulled a jacket and pants over my pajamas.

Jack turned around, eyes widening. "What?"

"Yeah, I found him hiding under my bed."

"Where is he now?"

"No idea. He headed out the moment I told him to."

Jack frowned. "That's weird."

I thought back to the movie. We were probably already at the climax of the movie – maybe he decided Jamie was an easier target. After all, Pitch is the Bogeyman. If I wasn't afraid of him, then he couldn't do much of anything to me.

Why, do you ask, am I not afraid of Pitch Black?

Because if I'm not afraid of him, he can't do much of anything to me. Therefore, I have no reason to be scared of him.

Footsteps sounded nearby. Jack wrapped an arm around me, pulling me around the corner.

The footsteps died away, heading in a different direction.

Jack didn't release me for a moment, and I didn't try to pull away, since he hadn't had physical contact with anyone in a couple hundred years.

He let go, slightly hesitantly, and we continued walking.

"So, why do you believe in Jack Frost?" he asked.

"It's… complicated and bizarre." Putting it lightly and describing my life in a nutshell.

"You're being _really_ calm about all of this."

"Yeah, I'll explain about that later. Let's just say it involves the same reason I believe in Jack Frost."

I followed him down the street. If my parents came back… well, they wouldn't be back for a while, at least until after midnight, if I knew Ryan. He can be quiet, but put him in a room with musicians and you can't make him be quiet for a minute.

Literally. Miranda's been to a few of these parties and she's timed him to figure it out.

I followed Jack down the street, through the dark, heart pounding out of my chest. Not with fear, but with excitement.

The first time I'd ever heard of _Rise of the Guardians_ was when Sharon was begging me to come to some kind of cosplay convention, mentioning she was going as the Tooth Fairy. When I asked what movie that was from, she produced to sit me and Miranda down and make us watch _Rise of the Guardians_. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

I didn't end up going to the convention because I was busy that weekend. Because I was here. Sharon's extracted a promise for next time, though, and she gets to pick the costume… please, Sharon, if you hear this, I _beg_ you, pick someone I can pull off with dignity.

Anyhow, we left for Burgess the day after that, and here I was. Following Jack Frost down a dark street toward a battle with the Bogeyman.

My life is, as I've said, complicated and bizarre.

**Thank you, Guest, for pointing out my mistake. It completely slipped my mind when I was writing this out.**

**Thank you all for your follows, favorites, and reviews!**


	4. Chapter 4

I turned the corner and nearly slipped on a patch of ice. Jack grabbed my arm. "Sorry, forgot to warn you. This way's fastest."

Before I could ask what he was about to do, he stepped onto the patch of ice and began to slide forward, towing me behind him. Wind whipped past us, pushing us along. Above us, dark clouds began to gather and roll in.

We skidded to a halt behind a group of people. You know who. Jamie and his friends and the Guardians.

"Last one," said Jack.

Santa Claus turned around. "Are you sure?"

"You think a few children can help you?!" yelled Pitch from overhead.

Santa pointed his sword at Pitch, then lowered it as if it were too heavy, leaning on it like he would a cane.

Jamie, standing in front of me, gasped.

"They're just bad dreams, Jamie," said Jack.

"We'll protect you, mate," said the Easter Bunny.

"Aw, you'll protect them? But who'll protect you?" asked Pitch.

"I will," said Jamie stepping out in front of them.

Pitch leaned forward, as if looking at something behind Jamie – looking at me.

I waved to the Bogeyman and stepped out next to Jamie. "Me too."

"You again?" he growled.

"Hi. My name's Ivy. May I suggest you just surrender now?

He glared down at me. "You don't seem like you're afraid of anything. But you are afraid of things. I've seen them all. I made you experience them. Over and over again, every night. You put on such a show of not being scared, but that's all it is, isn't it? A show."

I just glared up at him. "If you know everything that I'm afraid of, then you know I'm not afraid of you." I stepped out with Jamie.

The rest of the kids followed, giving me curious looks but saying nothing.

"Still think there's no such thing as the Bogeyman?" asked Pitch.

A cloud of black flowed toward us like a tidal wave.

"I do believe in you," said Jamie. "I'm just not afraid of you."

The black crashed down toward us.

Jamie put out his hand.

The black dissolved, turning into golden sand.

"No! Get them!" yelled Pitch.

The Night Mares charged.

I sidestepped the first black horse. It turned to charge again, but I reached out and touched it and it dissolved into golden sand. I've fought harder battles. Way harder.

Something hit my head. Images suddenly flashed in front of my eyes, memories, none of them pleasant. Memories of awful things I'd done – some under mind control, most not. Allowing terrible, terrible things to happen. Things that hadn't happened, but were the stuff of my nightmares – things such as the dream I'd had. I sunk to my knees. I blinked hard, pushing the memories and images out of my head, and looked up at Pitch.

"You sicko," I snarled, trying to stem the tidal wave of images.

"All of your worst fears. But none of those compares to the one you've always had. It's the one thing that's motivated you for your whole life, for everything you've done. And you hate it, don't you? You hate your fears, but you can't get rid of them, can you? That's what you hate the most, isn't it? The –"

"Be quiet," I growled.

He actually stopped hesitated for a moment.

I stood up, slowly, pushing back the images, and began to advance on him slowly. "You're the Bogeyman, you're just playing on my fears and trying to manipulate me. You've been preying on me for a long time, haven't you? My nightmares were fun for you, weren't they? Well, you know that nightmare you gave me in the hotel? That's the last one."


	5. Chapter 5

A golden rope wrapped around Pitch's arm, and he flew through the air, away from me.

I ran in the direction he'd gone.

My progress, however, was arrested by the sight of the Sandman. Pitch lay on the ground behind him.

He formed a hat out of sand and removed it from his head.

"Hello," I said.

Jamie and his friends ran up behind me.

The Guardians clustered around Sandman, who sudden rose into the sky. Golden tendrils extended, reaching everywhere.

Sand… things were everywhere. Dinosaurs, birds, horses, everything.

And then snowballs started flying. I dodged one, only for one to hit me in the back of the head.

A movement out of the corner of my eye caused me to turn in time to get hit with a snowball.

Jack Frost threw another one. I dodged this one, then scooped up a handful of snow, forming it into a ball, and threw it back at him.

Tonight held my record for craziest night ever. And crazy isn't exactly something I'm a stranger to, which you'd know if you're familiar with my stories.

"How dare you have fun in my presence?!" shouted Pitch.

I turned and threw a snowball that I had intended for Jack at him. It hit the Bogeyman in the face. He glared at me through a face covered in snow.

Then Jamie stumbled and went right through him.

Pitch's expression made me almost feel sorry for him for a moment.

He turned and ran.

The Guardians ran after him.

I debated what to do for a moment, then ran after them.

I caught up with them again at the frozen lake, where they were telling off Pitch.

"You can't get rid of me!" said Pitch. "Not forever. There will always be fear!"

"So what?" asked North. "As long as one child believes, we will be here to fight fear."

"Really?" asked Pitch. "Then what are _they_ doing here?" He gestured a group of nightmares which were circling the lake.

"They can't be my nightmares, I'm not afraid," said North.

"Not me either," I said.

"I believe we've established that!" snapped the Bogeyman. Pitch glanced around to the other Guardians, then to me, his face falling as he realized the truth.

"It looks like it's your fear they smell," said Jack.

Pitch began to step backward, then broke into a run.

The Nightmares attacked, pulling him along with them, far away.

As little as I liked him, it was _chilling_ to see.


	6. Chapter 6

I stood, watching for a moment as the silence returned.

My parents would be back to the hotel any minute. They'd freak out and I would be a missing person. _Again_. I could wait a few more minutes, thought, I was sure.

The Tooth Fairy gave Jack a hug, spinning him around.

"Are you ready, Jack? To make it official?" asked North.

North pulled out a huge book and started to read the agreement that all guardians had to make.

The Yetis, the elves, and the kids all began to appear behind me. I didn't turn around.

"I will," said Jack as North finished reading.

"Then congratulations, Jack Frost, for you are now, and forevermore, a guardian."

Everyone started cheering. A few elves sounded horns.

I began to walk back across the ice. As much as I would have liked to stay, my parents and Ryan probably would be back at the hotel any minute, and I needed to do some thinking first.

Jack landed in front of me.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to get back before anyone notices I've gone."

"I'll take you back."

He turned to North. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

He grabbed my arm and jumped into the air, pulling me after him.

It beat walking, and we were back in less than a minute.

He set me down inside the room and perched on the window sill. "You still owe me an explanation for a lot of things."

"Yes. Well, I…"

Footsteps sounded in the hall. I recognized Mom and Dad's voices.

"They're back. Um, I'll be here tomorrow night, alone, if you want to come back."

"See you then." He jumped off the window sill.

I closed the window.

The door swung open.

"Ivy, what are you doing up?" asked Mom, staring at me.

"Couldn't sleep," I replied.

"Well, you should get some sleep. We have a long drive tomorrow."

I internally face palmed. We were going home tomorrow. I'd completely forgotten. As Miranda would say, "Brilliant. Just brilliant".


	7. Chapter 7

I sat next to my window, listening to the wind. We were home again. I was back in my room, wondering how to send a letter to the North Pole. Forgetting we were leaving wasn't one of my brightest moments, and that's saying something when we're discussing my worst moments.

"You're really hard to find, you know," said a voice by my ear. Jack Frost had positioned himself next to the window, suspended in thin air.

"North has a lists of all the kids who've ever existed in the world since the Dark Ages. I had to get Phil to go through some back records, but you're definitely there, you and your brother. North remembered you in particular. He said he hadn't seen any siblings like you two in a while. Something about Ryan seeming to be the type who would consistently make the nice list, and you the naughty list, yet you both consistently did the opposite."

I hadn't moved or made a sound since he's spoken. "Yeah, it is kind of weird, isn't it?"

"So… you said you'd tell me why you believed in me?"

"Yeah." I took a deep breath and explained about my… ability. That stories in our world are actually real in alternate universes. Like _Dr. Who_. I had recently, in fact, returned from a nice long vacation with the Doctor. Saw some pretty cool stuff, saved reality... I'll have to fill you all in on how that went sometime. And the Marvel movies are real too. I have the ability to travel between them due to exposure to a rift in time when I was little. I had, of course, only found out about my powers a few years ago. Which you'd know if you'd been keeping up with my stories. We make recordings of them as therapy of sorts for me. I'm still fairly sane, so it seems to be working.

"Wow," said Jack Frost when I finished. "Most people wouldn't be in as good shape as you are."

"I knew that Pitch couldn't hurt me unless I was afraid of him, so I wasn't afraid of him. He _hated_ that."

"Yes, he did," agreed Jack. He glanced around my room.

It's not exactly a huge room. The dark blue walls were bare. Some trophies from karate tournaments lined my dresser. CD cases all over the floor – Skillet, Icon for Hire, Fireflight, soundtracks from various musicals. Books lined the bookshelf – not the stuff that I know a lot of girls like, the stuff with "good girls changing the bad boys" and "average girls falling in love with supernatural creatures" – but some mysteries and suspense, a few science fiction novels, and a couple classics like _To Kill a Mockingbird_. Those were mostly gifts from people.

His gaze returned to me.

"If you ever need help with anything, let me know."

"Thank you." That offer could very possibly come in handy soon. You never know when a freak snow storm will be useful.

I didn't expect to see Jack Frost again for a while. However, a week later, I found him sitting on my windowsill when I came home after a long night of training.

"Jack," I said. "Good to see you again. What brings you here?"

"I was passing by and thought I'd stop in."

That became what he said every Saturday night. Unfailingly, he came to see me Saturday nights at nine. He'd tell me what was going on with the Guardians, and we'd just talk. No one ever heard him, because nobody in my house believed in Jack Frost, though my mom did knock and asked why I was talking to myself once. Sometimes, Jack took me to see the other guardians. They all seemed to like me – or, at least, tolerate me.

There wasn't anything romantic between us, not ever – just to stop anything that must have popped up in anyone's shippery minds.

Miranda's telling me that "shippery" isn't a word. Of course it is – I just invented it.

One evening, I came home to find Jack on the windowsill and the Doctor sitting at my desk, going through my homework. The Doctor had somehow found out about our meetings and wanted to talk to Jack. While the Doctor was there, I asked him about some of the "magical" stuff that came along with Jack.

"The Man in the Moon has been putting people in alternate dimensions," the Doctor told me. "You can see the people still, because the wall between this dimension and that one is quite thin, but only if you believe they're there."

That explained a lot. As for various powers and abilities, I didn't really understand his explanation – I'm not a scientist, okay? – but the best I can understand it, it comes from alien technology and things like that.

The nightmares didn't stop entirely. I don't think they will for a long time, if they ever do. But they did lessen. I suspect I have Sandman to thank for that. Although my dream about riding on a unicorn through a meadow was a little weird, it was better than a nightmare about dying in some horrible way at the hands of one of the _many _people who I've managed to tick off over the last few years.

And I guess now we're at the end of the story. The story of how I met Jack Frost. I suppose I could say all sorts of things about learning to conquer fear to tie off all that stuff, but I don't see a point, frankly. You probably picked up the point already. Fear's a healthy thing sometimes, don't get me wrong. Fear of getting hit by a bus helps you to be more cautious when crossing the street and helps prevent you from being hit by a bus. But fear in the wrong things will do nobody any good.

I guess that's it. The end of the story. Not of my story, though, just of this one. I suspect that I'll have another story for you all very soon.

**And that's the end of this story. I have an _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._ story in the same series coming up soon, for those who are interested.**


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